Woman who won lottery during divorce can keep it all - Dutch court

2 Min Read

An employee shows fifty-euro notes in a bank in Sarajevo in this March 19, 2012 file photo. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A woman who won a 2.1 million euro ($2.3 million) lottery prize during a divorce has no obligation to share it with her ex-husband, according to a Dutch court decision published on Tuesday.

The Amsterdam District Court ruling said the couple had listed the shared assets they wished to divide at the time they filed for divorce on Oct. 20, 2014, though the divorce was not formally granted until June 2015. The woman won the Post Code Lottery on New Year’s Day 2015.

The man had argued that he and his estranged wife always played the lottery using shared household funds during their 30-year marriage, and it should be included in their divorce settlement.

But the judge noted they had separated their finances at least four years earlier when he went to live with his new girlfriend. The woman paid for the winning ticket from her own bank account.

“The above means that the prize won did not belong to their joint assets and that the court will hold the prize apart in its division of goods,” the written decision said. The ruling was made on Dec. 23 and published Tuesday.

The judge divided up the couple’s other assets, which amounted to less than 10,000 euros in value.